U.S. patent number 8,391,129 [Application Number 13/556,317] was granted by the patent office on 2013-03-05 for time alignment in multicarrier systems.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Ofinno Technologies, LLC. The grantee listed for this patent is Esmael Hejazi Dinan. Invention is credited to Esmael Hejazi Dinan.
United States Patent |
8,391,129 |
Dinan |
March 5, 2013 |
Time alignment in multicarrier systems
Abstract
Transmission timing of a random access preamble in an uplink
carrier of a carrier group being determined employing a
synchronization signal transmitted on a downlink carrier of the
carrier group. The wireless device receives a time alignment
command from the base station. The time alignment command comprises
a time adjustment value and an index identifying the carrier group.
The wireless device apply the time adjustment value to uplink
signals transmitted on all activated uplink carriers in the carrier
group.
Inventors: |
Dinan; Esmael Hejazi (Herndon,
VA) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Dinan; Esmael Hejazi |
Herndon |
VA |
US |
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Assignee: |
Ofinno Technologies, LLC
(Herndon, VA)
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Family
ID: |
47597179 |
Appl.
No.: |
13/556,317 |
Filed: |
July 24, 2012 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20130028204 A1 |
Jan 31, 2013 |
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Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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61511544 |
Jul 25, 2011 |
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61528226 |
Aug 27, 2011 |
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61556045 |
Nov 4, 2011 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
370/206; 370/252;
370/350; 370/329; 455/450; 375/260; 455/502; 375/356 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W
74/0833 (20130101); H04L 5/0098 (20130101); H04L
27/2613 (20130101); H04L 27/2666 (20130101); H04W
56/0005 (20130101); H04W 72/0413 (20130101); H04L
27/2657 (20130101); H04L 27/2692 (20130101); H04W
72/042 (20130101); H04W 72/0453 (20130101); H04L
5/0085 (20130101); H04W 56/0045 (20130101); H04W
72/0406 (20130101); H04W 74/008 (20130101); H04W
74/006 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04J
11/00 (20060101); H04J 3/06 (20060101); H04W
4/00 (20090101); H04L 27/28 (20060101); H04L
7/00 (20060101); H04W 56/00 (20090101) |
Field of
Search: |
;370/206,252,329,350
;375/260,356 ;455/450,502 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Hsu; Alpus H
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Dinan; Esmael Grossman; David
Parent Case Text
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application
No. 61/511,544, filed Jul. 25, 2011, entitled "Time Alignment in
Multicarrier OFDM Network," and U.S. Provisional Application No.
61/528,226, filed Aug. 27, 2011, entitled "Carrier Configuration in
Multicarrier Systems," and U.S. Provisional Application No.
61/556,045, filed Nov. 4, 2011, entitled "Multiple Timing Advances
in Multicarrier Systems," which are hereby incorporated by
reference in its entirety.
This application is related to co-pending Non-provisional
Application 13/556,165, filed Jul. 23, 2012, entitled "Time
Alignment in Multicarrier OFDM Network."
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method comprising: a) receiving, by a wireless device, at
least one radio resource control message from a base station, said
at least one radio resource control message: i) a causing
configuration of a plurality of carriers comprising a first carrier
and at least one second carrier; and ii) comprising: (1) a carrier
group index for a second carrier in said at least one second
carrier, said carrier group index identifying a second carrier
group, said second carrier group being one of a plurality of
carrier groups, said second carrier group comprising a second
subset of said at least one second carrier; (2) a plurality of
second uplink carrier parameters of a second uplink carrier for
said second carrier; and (3) a plurality of random access resource
parameters identifying random access resources for said second
carrier; b) receiving, by said wireless device, a media access
control activation command for at least activating said second
carrier in said second carrier group; c) receiving, by said
wireless device from said base station, a control command causing
said wireless device to transmit a random access preamble on said
second uplink carrier, said control command comprising a preamble
index corresponding to said random access preamble; d)
transmitting, by said wireless device, said random access preamble
on said random access resources on said second uplink carrier,
transmission timing of said random access preamble being
determined, at least in part, employing a second synchronization
signal transmitted on one of at least one downlink carrier in said
second carrier group, uplink transmissions in said second carrier
group employing said second synchronization signal as timing
reference; e) receiving, by said wireless device, at least one time
alignment command from said base station, said time alignment
command comprising: i) a time adjustment value; and ii) an index
identifying said second carrier group; and f) applying, by said
wireless device, said time adjustment value to uplink signals
transmitted on all activated uplink carriers in said second carrier
group such that said base station receives substantially aligned
uplink signals in frames and subframes of said second carrier
group.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein said plurality of carrier groups
further comprising a first carrier group comprising a first subset
of said plurality of carriers, said first subset comprising said
first carrier with a first downlink carrier and a first uplink
carrier, uplink transmissions by said wireless device in said first
carrier group employing a first synchronization signal transmitted
on said first downlink carrier as first timing reference.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein uplink signals, transmitted by
said wireless device, in: a) said first carrier group employ said
first synchronization signal transmitted on said first downlink
carrier as timing reference; and b) said second carrier group
employ said second synchronization signal as timing reference.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein said configuration further
associating with each of said at least one second carrier a
deactivation timer, said deactivation timer corresponding to one
second carrier restarting in response to a packet transmission on
said one second carrier, said one second carrier deactivating in
said wireless device in response to said deactivation timer
expiring.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein said wireless device autonomously
selects said one of said at least one downlink carrier in said
second carrier group for timing reference, said one of said at
least one downlink carrier being an activated downlink carrier.
6. The method of claim 4, wherein in response to deactivation of
said one of said at least one downlink carrier and if at least one
second carrier in said second carrier group is active in said
wireless device, said wireless device selects a new activated
second carrier in said second carrier group as timing reference for
said second carrier group, and uplink transmissions in said second
carrier group employ a third synchronization signal on a new second
downlink carrier in said active new second carrier as timing
reference.
7. The method of claim 4, wherein said selection is performed
autonomously by said wireless device without said wireless device
informing said base station.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein said random access transmission
is a contention-free random access transmission.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein each carrier group is assigned a
dedicated time alignment timer value, and said wireless device
maintains a separate time alignment timer for each carrier group in
said plurality of carrier groups.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein said wireless device maintains a
separate time alignment timer for each carrier group in said
plurality of carrier groups.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein said second carrier group does
not comprise said first carrier.
12. A method comprising: a) transmitting, by a base station, at
least one radio resource control message to a wireless device, said
at least one radio resource control message: i) configured to cause
configuration of a plurality of carriers comprising a first carrier
and at least one second carrier in said wireless device; and ii)
comprising: (1) a carrier group index for a second carrier in said
at least one second carrier, said carrier group index identifying a
second carrier group, said second carrier group being one of a
plurality of carrier groups, said second carrier group comprising a
second subset of said at least one second carrier; (2) a plurality
of second uplink carrier parameters of a second uplink carrier for
said second carrier; and (3) a plurality of random access resource
parameters identifying random access resources for said second
carrier; b) transmitting, by said base station, a media access
control activation command for at least activating said second
carrier in said second carrier group in said wireless device; c)
transmitting, by said base station to said wireless device, a
control command configured to cause said wireless device to
transmit a random access preamble on a second uplink carrier, said
control command comprising a preamble index corresponding to said
random access preamble; d) receiving, by said base station from
said wireless device, said random access preamble on said random
access resources on said second uplink carrier, transmission timing
of said random access preamble being determined, at least in part,
employing a second synchronization signal transmitted on one of at
least one downlink carrier in said second carrier group, uplink
transmissions in said second carrier group employing said
synchronization signal as timing reference; e) transmitting, by
said base station, at least one time alignment command to said
wireless device, said time alignment command comprising: i) a time
adjustment value; and ii) an index identifying said second carrier
group; and wherein said at least one time alignment command causes
substantial alignment of reception timing of uplink signals in
frames and subframes of said second carrier group.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising: a) receiving, by
said base station, a plurality of radio capability parameters from
said wireless device on said first carrier, said plurality of radio
capability parameters comprising at least one parameter indicating
whether said wireless device supports configuration of a plurality
of carrier groups; and b) if said plurality of radio capability
parameters indicates that said wireless device supports
configuration of a plurality of carrier groups, said base station,
selectively based on at least one criterion, transmitting said at
least one RRC control message to cause configuration of said
plurality of carrier groups in said wireless device.
14. A wireless device comprising: a) one or more communication
interfaces configured to communicate with a base station via at
least one wireless link; b) one or more processors; and c) memory
storing instructions that, when executed by said one or more
processors, cause said wireless device to: i) receive at least one
radio resource control message from said base station, said at
least one radio resource control message: (1) causing configuration
of a plurality of carriers comprising a first carrier and at least
one second carrier; and (2) comprising a carrier group index for a
second carrier in said at least one second carrier, said carrier
group index identifying a second carrier group, said second carrier
group being one of a plurality of carrier groups, said second
carrier group comprising a second subset of said at least one
second carrier; ii) receive, from said base station, a control
command causing said wireless device to transmit a random access
preamble on a second uplink carrier of said second carrier; iii)
transmit said random access preamble on said second uplink carrier,
transmission timing of said random access preamble being
determined, at least in part, employing a second synchronization
signal transmitted on one of at least one downlink carrier in said
second carrier group, uplink transmissions in said second carrier
group employing said second synchronization signal as timing
reference; iv) receive at least one time alignment command from
said base station, said time alignment command comprising: (1) a
time adjustment value; and (2) an index identifying said second
carrier group; and v) apply said time adjustment value to uplink
signals transmitted on all activated uplink carriers in said second
carrier group.
15. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein said control command
is received on the scheduling downlink carrier of said second
uplink carrier.
16. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein if said control
command is not received on said second carrier, said control
command further comprises a carrier index identifying said second
carrier.
17. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein said control command
further comprises a power control command.
18. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein said control command
is scrambled using an identifier of said wireless device.
19. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein said control command
is transmitted in response to said wireless device transmitting a
buffer status report to said base station, said buffer status
report comprising a buffer size, said buffer size indicating an
amount of data available for transmission in uplink buffers of said
wireless device.
20. The wireless device of claim 14, wherein said control command
further comprises a mask index, said wireless device employing, at
least in part, said mask index to determine said random access
preamble transmission timing or said random access preamble
transmission random access resources.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Example embodiments of the present invention enhance time alignment
in a multicarrier OFDM communication system. Embodiments of the
technology disclosed herein may be employed in the technical field
of multicarrier communication systems. More particularly, the
embodiments of the technology disclosed herein may relate to
enhancing time alignment in a multicarrier OFDM communication
system employing multiple timing advances.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a system 500 for transmitting
data traffic generated by a wireless device 502 to a server 508
over a multicarrier OFDM radio according to one aspect of the
illustrative embodiments. The system 500 may include a Wireless
Cellular Network/Internet Network 507, which may function to
provide connectivity between one or more wireless devices 502
(e.g., a cell phone, PDA (personal digital assistant), other
wirelessly-equipped device, and/or the like), one or more servers
508 (e.g. multimedia server, application servers, email servers, or
database servers) and/or the like.
As shown, the access network may include a plurality of base
stations 503 . . . 504. Base station 503 . . . 504 of the access
network may function to transmit and receive RF (radio frequency)
radiation 505 . . . 506 at one or more carrier frequencies, and the
RF radiation may provide one or more air interfaces over which the
wireless device 502 may communicate with the base stations 503 . .
. 504. The user 501 may use the wireless device (or UE: user
equipment) to receive data traffic, such as one or more multimedia
files, data files, pictures, video files, or voice mails, etc. The
wireless device 502 may include applications such as web email,
email applications, upload and ftp applications, MMS (multimedia
messaging system) applications, or file sharing applications. In
another example embodiment, the wireless device 502 may
automatically send traffic to a server 508 without direct
involvement of a user. For example, consider a wireless camera with
automatic upload feature, or a video camera uploading videos to the
remote server 508, or a personal computer equipped with an
application transmitting traffic to a remote server.
Some example embodiments of the technology disclosed enhances time
alignment in a multicarrier OFDM communication system employing
multiple timing advances.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may receive at least one radio resource control message from
a base station. The at least one radio resource control message may
cause configuration of a plurality of carriers comprising a first
carrier and at least one second carrier. The at least one radio
resource control message may comprise a carrier group index for a
second carrier in the at least one second carrier. The carrier
group index may identify a second carrier group. The second carrier
group may be one of a plurality of carrier groups. The second
carrier group may comprise a second subset of the at least one
second carrier. The wireless device may receive from the base
station, a control command. The control command may cause the
wireless device to transmit a random access preamble on the second
uplink carrier. The control command may comprise a preamble index
corresponding to the random access preamble. The wireless device
may transmit the random access preamble. Transmission timing of the
random access preamble may be determined, at least in part, by
employing a synchronization signal transmitted on one of at least
one downlink carrier in the second carrier group.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may transmit at least one radio resource control message to
a wireless device. The at least one radio resource control message
may be configured to cause configuration of a plurality of carriers
comprising a first carrier and at least one second carrier. The at
least one radio resource control message may comprise a carrier
group index for a second carrier in the at least one second
carrier. The carrier group index may identify a second carrier
group. The second carrier group may be one of a plurality of
carrier groups. The second carrier group may comprise a second
subset of the at least one second carrier. The base station may
transmit to the wireless device a control command. The control
command may be configured to cause the wireless device to transmit
a random access preamble on the second uplink carrier. The control
command may comprise a preamble index corresponding to the random
access preamble. The base station may receive the random access
preamble. Transmission timing of the random access preamble may be
determined, at least in part, by employing a synchronization signal
transmitted on one of at least one downlink carrier in the second
carrier group.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
Examples of several of the various embodiments of the present
invention are described herein with reference to the drawings, in
which:
FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting example sets of OFDM subcarriers as
per an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting an example transmission time and
reception time for two carriers as per an aspect of an embodiment
of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagram depicting OFDM radio resources as per an aspect
of an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a base station and a wireless device
as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a system for transmitting data
traffic over an OFDM radio system as per an aspect of an embodiment
of the present invention;
FIG. 6 illustrates the subframe timing as per an aspect of an
embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 7 depicts message flows between a base station and a wireless
device as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present
invention;
FIG. 8 depicts an example flow chart for a time alignment process
in a wireless device as per an aspect of an embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 9 depicts an example flow chart for a time alignment process
in a base station as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present
invention; and
FIG. 10 depicts an example flow chart for a time alignment process
in a wireless device as per an aspect of an embodiment of the
present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
Example embodiments of the present invention enhance time alignment
in a multicarrier OFDM communication system. Embodiments of the
technology disclosed herein may be employed in the technical field
of multicarrier communication systems. More particularly, the
embodiments of the technology disclosed herein may relate to
enhancing time alignment in a multicarrier OFDM communication
system employing multiple timing advances.
Example embodiments of the invention may be implemented using
various physical layer modulation and transmission mechanisms.
Example transmission mechanisms may include, but are not limited
to: CDMA (code division multiple access), OFDM (orthogonal
frequency division multiplexing), TDMA (time division multiple
access), Wavelet technologies, and/or the like. Hybrid transmission
mechanisms such as TDMA/CDMA, and OFDM/CDMA may also be employed.
Various modulation schemes may be applied for signal transmission
in the physical layer. Examples of modulation schemes include, but
are not limited to: phase, amplitude, code, a combination of these,
and/or the like. An example radio transmission method may implement
QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) using BPSK (binary phase
shift keying), QPSK (quadrature phase shift keying), 16-QAM,
64-QAM, 256-QAM, and/or the like. Physical radio transmission may
be enhanced by dynamically or semi-dynamically changing the
modulation and coding scheme depending on transmission requirements
and radio conditions.
FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting example sets of OFDM subcarriers as
per an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention. As
illustrated in this example, arrow(s) in the diagram may depict a
subcarrier in a multicarrier OFDM system. The OFDM system may use
technology such as OFDM technology, SC-OFDM (single carrier-OFDM)
technology, or the like. For example, arrow 101 shows a subcarrier
transmitting information symbols. FIG. 1 is for illustration
purposes, and a typical multicarrier OFDM system may include more
subcarriers in a carrier. For example, the number of subcarriers in
a carrier may be in the range of 10 to 10,000 subcarriers. FIG. 1
shows two guard bands 106 and 107 in a transmission band. As
illustrated in FIG. 1, guard band 106 is between subcarriers 103
and subcarriers 104. The example set of subcarriers A 102 includes
subcarriers 103 and subcarriers 104. FIG. 1 also illustrates an
example set of subcarriers B 105. As illustrated, there is no guard
band between any two subcarriers in the example set of subcarriers
B 105. Carriers in a multicarrier OFDM communication system may be
contiguous carriers, non-contiguous carriers, or a combination of
both contiguous and non-contiguous carriers.
FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting an example transmission time and
reception time for two carriers as per an aspect of an embodiment
of the present invention. A multicarrier OFDM communication system
may include one or more carriers, for example, ranging from 1 to 10
carriers. Carrier A 204 and carrier B 205 may have the same or
different timing structures. Although FIG. 2 shows two synchronized
carriers, carrier A 204 and carrier B 205 may or may not be
synchronized with each other. Different radio frame structures may
be supported for FDD (frequency division duplex) and TDD (time
division duplex) duplex mechanisms. FIG. 2 shows an example FDD
frame timing. Downlink and uplink transmissions may be organized
into radio frames 201. In this example, radio frame duration is 10
msec. Other frame durations, for example, in the range of 1 to 100
msec may also be supported. In this example, each 10 ms radio frame
201 may be divided into ten equally sized sub-frames 202. Other
subframe durations such as including 0.5 msec, 1 msec, 2 msec, and
5 msec may also be supported. Sub-frame(s) may consist of two or
more slots 206. For the example of FDD, 10 subframes may be
available for downlink transmission and 10 subframes may be
available for uplink transmissions in each 10 ms interval. Uplink
and downlink transmissions may be separated in the frequency
domain. Slot(s) may include a plurality of OFDM symbols 203. The
number of OFDM symbols 203 in a slot 206 may depend on the cyclic
prefix length and subcarrier spacing.
In an example case of TDD, uplink and downlink transmissions may be
separated in the time domain. According to some of the various
aspects of embodiments, each 10 ms radio frame may include two
half-frames of 5 ms each. Half-frame(s) may include eight slots of
length 0.5 ms and three special fields: DwPTS (Downlink Pilot Time
Slot), GP (Guard Period) and UpPTS (Uplink Pilot Time Slot). The
length of DwPTS and UpPTS may be configurable subject to the total
length of DwPTS, GP and UpPTS being equal to 1 ms. Both 5 ms and 10
ms switch-point periodicity may be supported. In an example,
subframe 1 in all configurations and subframe 6 in configurations
with 5 ms switch-point periodicity may include DwPTS, GP and UpPTS.
Subframe 6 in configurations with 10 ms switch-point periodicity
may include DwPTS. Other subframes may include two equally sized
slots. For this TDD example, GP may be employed for downlink to
uplink transition. Other subframes/fields may be assigned for
either downlink or uplink transmission. Other frame structures in
addition to the above two frame structures may also be supported,
for example in one example embodiment the frame duration may be
selected dynamically based on the packet sizes.
FIG. 3 is a diagram depicting OFDM radio resources as per an aspect
of an embodiment of the present invention. The resource grid
structure in time 304 and frequency 305 is illustrated in FIG. 3.
The quantity of downlink subcarriers or resource blocks (RB) (in
this example 6 to 100 RBs) may depend, at least in part, on the
downlink transmission bandwidth 306 configured in the cell. The
smallest radio resource unit may be called a resource element (e.g.
301). Resource elements may be grouped into resource blocks (e.g.
302). Resource blocks may be grouped into larger radio resources
called Resource Block Groups (RBG) (e.g. 303). The transmitted
signal in slot 206 may be described by one or several resource
grids of a plurality of subcarriers and a plurality of OFDM
symbols. Resource blocks may be used to describe the mapping of
certain physical channels to resource elements. Other pre-defined
groupings of physical resource elements may be implemented in the
system depending on the radio technology. For example, 24
subcarriers may be grouped as a radio block for a duration of 5
msec.
Physical and virtual resource blocks may be defined. A physical
resource block may be defined as N consecutive OFDM symbols in the
time domain and M consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain,
wherein M and N are integers. A physical resource block may include
M.times.N resource elements. In an illustrative example, a resource
block may correspond to one slot in the time domain and 180 kHz in
the frequency domain (for 15 KHz subcarrier bandwidth and 12
subcarriers). A virtual resource block may be of the same size as a
physical resource block. Various types of virtual resource blocks
may be defined (e.g. virtual resource blocks of localized type and
virtual resource blocks of distributed type). For various types of
virtual resource blocks, a pair of virtual resource blocks over two
slots in a subframe may be assigned together by a single virtual
resource block number. Virtual resource blocks of localized type
may be mapped directly to physical resource blocks such that
sequential virtual resource block k corresponds to physical
resource block k. Alternatively, virtual resource blocks of
distributed type may be mapped to physical resource blocks
according to a predefined table or a predefined formula. Various
configurations for radio resources may be supported under an OFDM
framework, for example, a resource block may be defined as
including the subcarriers in the entire band for an allocated time
duration.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, an antenna
port may be defined such that the channel over which a symbol on
the antenna port is conveyed may be inferred from the channel over
which another symbol on the same antenna port is conveyed. In some
embodiments, there may be one resource grid per antenna port. The
set of antenna port(s) supported may depend on the reference signal
configuration in the cell. Cell-specific reference signals may
support a configuration of one, two, or four antenna port(s) and
may be transmitted on antenna port(s) {0}, {0, 1}, and {0, 1, 2,
3}, respectively. Multicast-broadcast reference signals may be
transmitted on antenna port 4. Wireless device-specific reference
signals may be transmitted on antenna port(s) 5, 7, 8, or one or
several of ports {7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14}. Positioning
reference signals may be transmitted on antenna port 6. Channel
state information (CSI) reference signals may support a
configuration of one, two, four or eight antenna port(s) and may be
transmitted on antenna port(s) 15, {15, 16}, {15, . . . , 18} and
{15, . . . , 22}, respectively. Various configurations for antenna
configuration may be supported depending on the number of antennas
and the capability of the wireless devices and wireless base
stations.
According to some embodiments, a radio resource framework using
OFDM technology may be employed. Alternative embodiments may be
implemented employing other radio technologies. Example
transmission mechanisms include, but are not limited to: CDMA,
OFDM, TDMA, Wavelet technologies, and/or the like. Hybrid
transmission mechanisms such as TDMA/CDMA, and OFDM/CDMA may also
be employed.
FIG. 4 is an example block diagram of a base station 401 and a
wireless device 406, as per an aspect of an embodiment of the
present invention. A communication network 400 may include at least
one base station 401 and at least one wireless device 406. The base
station 401 may include at least one communication interface 402,
at least one processor 403, and at least one set of program code
instructions 405 stored in non-transitory memory 404 and executable
by the at least one processor 403. The wireless device 406 may
include at least one communication interface 407, at least one
processor 408, and at least one set of program code instructions
410 stored in non-transitory memory 409 and executable by the at
least one processor 408. Communication interface 402 in base
station 401 may be configured to engage in communication with
communication interface 407 in wireless device 406 via a
communication path that includes at least one wireless link 411.
Wireless link 411 may be a bi-directional link. Communication
interface 407 in wireless device 406 may also be configured to
engage in a communication with communication interface 402 in base
station 401. Base station 401 and wireless device 406 may be
configured to send and receive data over wireless link 411 using
multiple frequency carriers. According to some of the various
aspects of embodiments, transceiver(s) may be employed. A
transceiver is a device that includes both a transmitter and
receiver. Transceivers may be employed in devices such as wireless
devices, base stations, relay nodes, and/or the like. Example
embodiments for radio technology implemented in communication
interface 402, 407 and wireless link 411 are illustrated are FIG.
1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3. and associated text.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting a system 500 for transmitting
data traffic generated by a wireless device 502 to a server 508
over a multicarrier OFDM radio according to one aspect of the
illustrative embodiments. The system 500 may include a Wireless
Cellular Network/Internet Network 507, which may function to
provide connectivity between one or more wireless devices 502
(e.g., a cell phone, PDA (personal digital assistant), other
wirelessly-equipped device, and/or the like), one or more servers
508 (e.g. multimedia server, application servers, email servers, or
database servers) and/or the like.
It should be understood, however, that this and other arrangements
described herein are set forth for purposes of example only. As
such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other
arrangements and other elements (e.g., machines, interfaces,
functions, orders of functions, etc.) may be used instead, some
elements may be added, and some elements may be omitted altogether.
Further, as in most telecommunications applications, those skilled
in the art will appreciate that many of the elements described
herein are functional entities that may be implemented as discrete
or distributed components or in conjunction with other components,
and in any suitable combination and location. Still further,
various functions described herein as being performed by one or
more entities may be carried out by hardware, firmware and/or
software logic in combination with hardware. For instance, various
functions may be carried out by a processor executing a set of
machine language instructions stored in memory.
As shown, the access network may include a plurality of base
stations 503 . . . 504. Base station 503 . . . 504 of the access
network may function to transmit and receive RF (radio frequency)
radiation 505 . . . 506 at one or more carrier frequencies, and the
RF radiation may provide one or more air interfaces over which the
wireless device 502 may communicate with the base stations 503 . .
. 504. The user 501 may use the wireless device (or UE: user
equipment) to receive data traffic, such as one or more multimedia
files, data files, pictures, video files, or voice mails, etc. The
wireless device 502 may include applications such as web email,
email applications, upload and ftp applications, MMS (multimedia
messaging system) applications, or file sharing applications. In
another example embodiment, the wireless device 502 may
automatically send traffic to a server 508 without direct
involvement of a user. For example, consider a wireless camera with
automatic upload feature, or a video camera uploading videos to the
remote server 508, or a personal computer equipped with an
application transmitting traffic to a remote server.
One or more base stations 503 . . . 504 may define a corresponding
wireless coverage area. The RF radiation 505 . . . 506 of the base
stations 503 . . . 504 may carry communications between the
Wireless Cellular Network/Internet Network 507 and access device
502 according to any of a variety of protocols. For example, RF
radiation 505 . . . 506 may carry communications according to WiMAX
(Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access e.g., IEEE
802.16), LTE (long term evolution), microwave, satellite, MMDS
(Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service), Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE
802.11), Bluetooth, infrared, and other protocols now known or
later developed. The communication between the wireless device 502
and the server 508 may be enabled by any networking and transport
technology for example TCP/IP (transport control protocol/Internet
protocol), RTP (real time protocol), RTCP (real time control
protocol), HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) or any other
networking protocol.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, an LTE
network may include many base stations, providing a user plane
(PDCP: packet data convergence protocol/RLC: radio link
control/MAC: media access control/PHY: physical) and control plane
(RRC: radio resource control) protocol terminations towards the
wireless device. The base station(s) may be interconnected with
other base station(s) by means of an X2 interface. The base
stations may also be connected by means of an S1 interface to an
EPC (Evolved Packet Core). For example, the base stations may be
interconnected to the MME (Mobility Management Entity) by means of
the S1-MME interface and to the Serving Gateway (S-GW) by means of
the S1-U interface. The S1 interface may support a many-to-many
relation between MMEs/Serving Gateways and base stations. A base
station may include many sectors for example: 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6
sectors. A base station may include many cells, for example,
ranging from 1 to 50 cells or more. A cell may be categorized, for
example, as a primary cell or secondary cell. When carrier
aggregation is configured, a wireless device may have one RRC
connection with the network. At RRC connection
establishment/re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may
provide the NAS (non-access stratum) mobility information (e.g.
TAI-tracking area identifier), and at RRC connection
re-establishment/handover, one serving cell may provide the
security input. This cell may be referred to as the Primary Cell
(PCell). In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to the PCell
may be the Downlink Primary Component Carrier (DL PCC), while in
the uplink, it may be the Uplink Primary Component Carrier (UL
PCC). Depending on wireless device capabilities, Secondary Cells
(SCells) may be configured to form together with the PCell a set of
serving cells. In the downlink, the carrier corresponding to an
SCell may be a Downlink Secondary Component Carrier (DL SCC), while
in the uplink, it may be an Uplink Secondary Component Carrier (UL
SCC). An SCell may or may not have an uplink carrier.
A cell, comprising a downlink carrier and optionally an uplink
carrier, is assigned a physical cell ID and a cell index. A carrier
(downlink or uplink) belongs to only one cell, the cell ID or Cell
index may also identify the downlink carrier or uplink carrier of
the cell (depending on the context it is used). In the
specification, cell ID may be equally referred to a carrier ID, and
cell index may be referred to carrier index. In implementation, the
physical cell ID or cell index may be assigned to a cell. Cell ID
may be determined using the synchronization signal transmitted on a
downlink carrier. Cell index may be determined using RRC messages.
For example, when the specification refers to a first physical cell
ID for a first downlink carrier, it may mean the first physical
cell ID is for a cell comprising the first downlink carrier. The
same concept may apply to, for example, carrier activation. When
the specification indicates that a first carrier is activated, it
equally means that the cell comprising the first carrier is
activated.
Embodiments may be configured to operate as needed. The disclosed
mechanism may be performed when certain criteria are met, for
example, in wireless device, base station, radio environment,
network, a combination of the above, and/or the like. Example
criteria may be based, at least in part, on for example, traffic
load, initial system set up, packet sizes, traffic characteristics,
a combination of the above, and/or the like. When the one or more
criteria are met, the example embodiments may be applied.
Therefore, it may be possible to implement example embodiments that
selectively implement disclosed protocols.
Example embodiments of the invention may enhance time alignment in
a multicarrier OFDM communication system. Other example embodiments
may comprise a non-transitory tangible computer readable media
comprising instructions executable by one or more processors to
cause time alignment in a multicarrier OFDM communication system.
Yet other example embodiments may comprise an article of
manufacture that comprises a non-transitory tangible computer
readable machine-accessible medium having instructions encoded
thereon for enabling programmable hardware to cause a device (e.g.
wireless communicator, UE, base station, etc.) to enhance time
alignment in a multicarrier OFDM communication system. The device
may include processors, memory, interfaces, and/or the like. Other
example embodiments may comprise communication networks comprising
devices such as base stations, wireless devices (or user equipment:
UE), servers, switches, antennas, and/or the like.
A base station may transmit configuration messages to a wireless
device causing configuration of a first (primary) carrier and one
or more second (secondary) carriers in the wireless device. Serving
carriers having uplink to which the same time alignment applies may
be grouped in a carrier group. Serving carriers in one carrier
group may use the same timing reference. For a given carrier group,
a wireless device may use one active downlink carrier as the timing
reference at a given time. For a given carrier group, a wireless
device may employ the same timing reference for uplink subframes
and frames transmission timing of the uplink carriers belonging to
the same carrier group. According to some of the various aspects of
embodiments, serving carriers having uplink to which the same time
alignment applies may correspond to the serving carriers hosted by
the same receiver. A carrier group comprises at least one serving
carrier with configured uplink. A wireless device supporting
multiple carrier groups may support two or more carrier groups. One
carrier group contains the first carrier and may be called a first
carrier group. In a multiple carrier group configuration, at least
one carrier group, called a second carrier group, may contain one
or more second carriers and may not contain the first carrier.
Carriers within the same carrier group may use the same time
alignment value and the same timing reference.
To obtain initial uplink time alignment for a second carrier group,
base station may initiate random access procedure. In a second
carrier group, wireless device may use one of any activated second
carriers from the second carrier group as a timing reference
carrier. There may be one timing reference and one time alignment
timer (time alignment timer) per carrier group. Time alignment
timer for carrier groups may be configured with different values.
When the time alignment timer associated with the first carrier
group expires, all time alignment timers may be considered as
expired and the wireless device may flush all HARQ buffers of all
serving carriers, may clear any configured downlink
assignment/uplink grants, and RRC may release PUCCH/SRS for all
configured serving carriers. When the first carrier group time
alignment timer is not running, a second carrier group time
alignment timer may not be running. When the time alignment timer
associated with second carrier group expires: a) SRS transmissions
may be stopped on the corresponding second carriers, b) the type-0
SRS configuration may be released, the type-1 SRS configuration may
be maintained, c) CSI reporting configuration for the corresponding
second carriers may be maintained, and/or d) MAC may flush the
uplink HARQ buffers of the corresponding second carriers.
Upon deactivation of the last active second carrier in a second
carrier group, the wireless device may not stop time alignment
timer of the second carrier group. Upon removal of the last second
carrier in a second carrier group, time alignment timer of the
carrier group may not be running. Random access procedures in
parallel may not be supported for a wireless device. If a new
random access procedure is requested (either by wireless device or
network) while another random access procedure is already ongoing,
it may be up to the wireless device implementation whether to
continue with the ongoing procedure or start with the new
procedure. The base station may initiate the random access
procedure via a PDCCH order for an activated second carrier. This
PDCCH order may be sent on the scheduling carrier of this second
carrier. When cross carrier scheduling is configured for a carrier,
the scheduling carrier may be different than the carrier that is
employed for preamble transmission. Non-contention based random
access procedure may be supported for second carriers of a second
carrier group. Upon new uplink data arrival the wireless device may
not trigger a random access procedure on a second carrier. PDCCH
order for preamble transmission may be sent on a different serving
carrier than the second carrier in which the preamble is sent.
Carrier grouping may be performed without requiring any additional
wireless device assisted information.
A wireless device may transmit a scheduling request and/or a buffer
status report due to uplink data arrival in the wireless device. A
wireless device may transmit a scheduling request when wireless
device has data for uplink transmission and wireless device does
not receive uplink grants for transmission of buffer status report.
Wireless device may transmit a medium access control buffer status
report in the uplink to inform the base station about the size of
the uplink transmission buffer. A wireless device buffer status
report may be transmitted in an uplink resource identified in a
received uplink grant. In response to receiving buffer status
report, the base station may, selectively and depending on a
plurality of criteria, transmit a PDCCH order to the wireless
device and may cause the wireless device to start random access
procedure on a second carrier (in case of carrier aggregation). A
PDCCH order may be triggered by the buffer status report reception
due to the uplink data arrival in the wireless device. Preamble
transmission may be triggered in the case of uplink data arrival,
meaning that preamble transmission may be triggered by the buffer
status report reception in the base station. Upon new uplink data
arrival the wireless device may not trigger a random access
procedure on a second carrier. The base station may trigger the
random access procedure based on the buffer status report reception
due to uplink data arrival in the wireless device. Base station may
consider many parameters in triggering random access on a second
carrier, for example, current base station load, wireless device
buffer size(s) in buffer status report report(s), wireless device
category, wireless device capability, QoS requirements, and/or the
like.
Initial timing alignment may be achieved through random access
procedure. This involves the wireless device transmitting a random
access preamble and the base station responding an initial time
alignment command with a time alignment value within the random
access response window. The start of the random access preamble may
be aligned with the start of the corresponding uplink subframe at
the wireless device assuming time alignment value of zero. The base
station may estimate the uplink timing from the random access
preamble transmitted by the wireless device. Then the time
alignment command may be derived by the base station based on the
estimation of the difference between the desired uplink timing and
the actual uplink timing. The wireless device may determine the
initial uplink transmission timing relative to the corresponding
downlink of the second carrier group on which the preamble is
transmitted. PDCCH order may be used to trigger random access
process for an activated second carrier. For a newly configured
second carrier or a configured but deactivated second carrier, base
station may need to firstly activate the corresponding second
carrier and then trigger random access process on it.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may communicate with a mix of wireless devices. Wireless
devices may support multiple technologies, or multiple releases of
the same technology depending on wireless device category and/or
capability. A base station may comprise multiple sectors. When
specification refers to a base station communicating with a
plurality of wireless devices, specification may refer to a subset
of the total wireless devices in the coverage area. Specification
may refer to for example a plurality of wireless devices of a given
LTE release with a given capability and in a given sector of the
base station. The plurality of wireless devices in the
specification may refer to a selected plurality of wireless
devices, or a subset of total wireless devices in the coverage
area, which perform according to the disclosed methods. There may
be many wireless devices in the coverage area that may not comply
with the disclosed methods, for example because those wireless
devices perform based on older releases of LTE technology. The
number of time alignment commands transmitted by the base station
to a wireless device in a given period may depend, at least in
part, on many parameters including at least one of: a) speed that
the wireless device moves in the coverage area, b) direction that
the wireless device moves in the coverage area, c) coverage radius,
d) number of active wireless devices in the coverage area, and/or
the like.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the
mapping of a serving carrier to a carrier group may be configured
by the serving base station with RRC signaling. When needed, the
mapping between a second carrier and a carrier group may be
reconfigured with RRC signaling. The mapping between a second
carrier and a carrier group may not be reconfigured with RRC while
the second carrier is configured. The first carrier may not change
carrier group and may always be a member of the first carrier
group. When a base station performs second carrier addition
configuration, the related carrier group configuration may be
configured for the second carrier. Base station may modify carrier
group configuration of a second carrier by removing (releasing) the
second carrier and adding a new second carrier (with same physical
carrier ID and frequency) with an updated carrier group index. The
new second carrier with the updated carrier group index may be
initially inactive subsequent to joining the updated carrier group
index. Base station may activate the updated new second carrier and
then start scheduling packets on the activated second carrier. It
may not be possible to change the carrier group associated with a
second carrier but rather the second carrier needs to be removed
and a new second carrier needs to be added with another carrier
group.
A base station may perform initial configuration based on an
initial configuration parameters received from a network node (for
example a management platform), an initial base station
configuration, wireless device location, wireless device type,
wireless device CSI feedback, wireless device uplink transmissions
(for example, data, SRS, and/or the like), a combination of the
above, and/or the like. For example, initial configuration may be
based on wireless device channel state measurements. For example,
depending on the signal quality received from a wireless device on
various second carriers downlink carrier or by determination of
wireless device being in repeater coverage area, or a combination
of both, a base station may determine the initial configuration of
first and second carrier groups and membership of second carriers
to carrier groups.
In an example implementation, the time alignment value of a serving
carrier may change, for example due to wireless device's mobility
from a macro to a repeater or an RRH (remote radio head) coverage
area. The signal delay for that second carrier may become different
from the original value and different from other serving carriers
in the same carrier group. In this scenario, base station may
relocate this time alignment-changed serving carrier to another
existing carrier group. Or alternatively, the base station may
create a new carrier group for the second carrier, based on the
updated time alignment value. Time alignment value may be derived
for example through base station measurement of signal reception
timing, random access procedure, and/or other standard or
proprietary algorithms. A base station may realize that the time
alignment value of a serving carrier is no longer consistent with
its current carrier group. There may be many other scenarios which
require base station to reconfigure carrier groups. During
reconfiguration, the base station may need to move the reference
second carrier belonging to a second carrier group to another
carrier group. In this scenario, the second carrier group would
require a new reference second carrier. In an example embodiment,
the wireless device may select an active second carrier in the
second carrier group as the reference timing second carrier.
Base station may consider wireless device's capability in
configuring multiple carrier groups for a wireless device. Wireless
device may be configured with a configuration that is compatible
with wireless device capability. Multiple carrier group capability
may be an optional feature in LTE release 11 and per band
combination of multiple carrier group capability may be introduced.
Wireless device may transmit its multiple carrier group capability
to base station via an RRC message and base station may consider
wireless device capability in configuring carrier group
configuration of the wireless device.
The time alignment maintenance for the first carrier and first
carrier group may follow Rel-10 principles. If a second carrier
applying the time alignment of the first carrier is added to the
first carrier group, the Rel-10 procedures may be reused. In one
example embodiment, there is no need to assign a carrier group
index for the first carrier group. Second carriers grouped with the
first carrier may be grouped implicitly and a carrier group index
for the first carrier group may not be needed or a carrier group
index may be assigned implicitly by default (for example, carrier
group index 0). Carrier group index may be regarded as zero if the
carrier group index field is absent upon second carrier addition.
If a second carrier is not configured with a carrier group index,
it may apply that the second carrier belongs to first carrier
group.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may select one second carrier downlink in a secondary
carrier group as the downlink timing reference carrier for the
secondary carrier group. This may reduce signaling overhead or
complexity of implementation and/or increase efficiency. For a
wireless device, a second carrier group may have one timing
reference carrier. In an example embodiment, the active second
carrier with the highest signal quality may be selected as the
timing reference second carrier by the wireless device. In another
example embodiment, downlink timing reference carrier for a second
carrier group may be the second downlink carrier associated with
the second uplink carrier where random access process was
performed. For preamble transmission, the corresponding downlink of
the carrier which the preamble is sent may be used as downlink
timing reference. In an example embodiment, wireless device may
autonomously select a downlink carrier of an active carrier in the
second carrier group as the reference second carrier. When time
alignment command is received in random access response or timing
alignment command for a carrier group, the wireless device may
apply the time alignment value to current uplink timing of the
corresponding carrier group.
In an example embodiment, the second carrier served as the timing
reference carrier in second carrier group may be deactivated in
some cases. In a wireless device, when a second carrier is
inactive, the wireless device may switch off some parts of the
receiver and/or transmitter corresponding to the second carrier.
This act may reduce battery power consumption in the wireless
device. In another example embodiment, the reference second carrier
in a second carrier group may be released by the serving base
station. The timing reference carrier may be changed to another
active second carrier in the second carrier group for maintaining
uplink timing alignment for second carriers in the same second
carrier group. Change of timing reference carrier in a second
carrier group may be supported. The reference carrier may also be
changed for other reasons such as coverage quality, random access
process failure, reference second carrier release, subscriber
mobility, a combination of the above, and/or the like. In an
example embodiment, when the reference timing second carrier is
released or is deactivated, the wireless device may autonomously
change the timing reference carrier to another active second
carrier in the second carrier group. For example, initially
downlink second carrier in which random access is transmitted may
be used as a timing reference and then the wireless device may use
another second carrier in the carrier group as the timing
reference, when the reference second carrier needs to be
changed.
A preamble may be sent by a wireless device in response to the
PDCCH order on a second carrier belonging to a second carrier
group. Preamble transmission for second carriers may be controlled
by the network using PDCCH order. Random access response message in
response to the preamble transmission on second carrier may be
addressed to RA-CRNTI in the first carrier common search space.
Once the random access preamble is transmitted, the wireless device
(that transmitted the preamble) may monitor the PDCCH of the first
carrier for random access response(s). Wireless device may monitor
the PDCCH in the random access response window. The wireless device
may stop monitoring for random access response(s) after successful
reception of a random access response containing a random access
preamble identifier that matches the transmitted random access
preamble.
If the random access response contains a random access preamble
identifier corresponding to the transmitted random access preamble,
the wireless device may consider this random access response
reception successful and apply the random access response for the
serving carrier where the random access preamble was transmitted.
The wireless device may process the received timing advance
command. The wireless device may process the received uplink grant
value and indicate it to the lower layers. In an example
implementation, the second carrier index in the uplink grant may
not be transmitted in the uplink grant in random access response
and the uplink grant contained in the random access response may be
applicable to the carrier where the preamble was sent. According to
some of the various aspects of embodiments, preamble identifier may
be included in a random access response to address possible
preamble misdetection by the base station. Wireless device may
compare the preamble identifier in random access response with the
transmitted preamble identifier to verify the validity of the
random access response and to verify possible preamble misdetection
by base station. The base station may transmit at least one RRC
message to a wireless device causing configuration of random access
resources in a wireless device. In the first carrier group, random
access resources may be configured on the first carrier, and no
second carrier in the first carrier group may be configured with
random access resources. One or more second carriers in a second
carrier group may be configured with random access resources. This
may allow the base station to trigger random access process on any
one of the second carriers (in the second carrier group) that is
configured with random access resources. For the first carrier
group, random access process may be performed only on the first
carrier. This feature may provide flexibility to the base station
in selecting a second carrier for random access process in a second
carrier group. It may be noted that carrier configuration may be
wireless device specific, and two wireless devices may be
configured with different first carrier and different carrier group
configurations.
If a wireless device receives an RRC message that causes the
wireless device to be configured to transmit sounding reference
signal on a second carrier, the wireless device may transmit
sounding reference signal if the second carrier is in-sync. The
second carrier is in-sync, if time alignment timer for the
corresponding second carrier group is running. In an example
embodiment, if a second carrier is configured and is associated
with a second carrier group that is out-of-sync (time alignment
timer is not running), the base station may initiate random access
process on a second carrier in the second carrier group. In
response to successful completion of random access process in the
second carrier group, the wireless device may start sounding
reference signal transmission on uplink carriers of second carriers
(in the second carrier group) with configured sounding reference
signal transmission. Wireless device may not transmit sounding
reference signal in the uplink of a second carrier belonging to an
out-of-sync second carrier group. When sounding reference signal is
configured for a second carrier belonging to an out-of-sync second
carrier group, a wireless device may not send sounding reference
signal until wireless device receives a random access response
including a time alignment value, and an uplink grant, because
otherwise sounding reference signal may be sent with incorrect
transmission power and/or timing. Uplink grant may include power
control information. The wireless device may receive time alignment
value, uplink resources and a power control command to adjust the
uplink transmission timing and power before the wireless device
starts to send sounding reference signal (if configured for the
second carrier).
If no random access response is received within the random access
response window, or if none of all received random access responses
contains a random access preamble identifier corresponding to the
transmitted random access preamble, the random access response
reception may be considered not successful and the wireless device
may increment a preamble transmission counter by one. If the
counter reaches a predefined value and if the random access
preamble is transmitted on the first carrier, wireless device may
indicate a random access problem to RRC layer. The first carrier
group may be considered out of sync, and uplink transmissions
(except transmission of an uplink preamble) may stop. RRC layer may
indicate a radio link failure. If the counter reaches a predefined
value and if the random access preamble is transmitted on a second
carrier, wireless device may consider the random access procedure
unsuccessfully completed. The wireless device may not indicate a
random access problem to RRC layer in this case, and no radio link
failure may be indicated. The wireless device may continue uplink
transmissions on that carrier group. The time alignment state of
the carrier group may remain in-sync if the time alignment timer is
running.
LTE Rel-8, 9 & 10 timing advance (alignment) command MAC
control element (CE) has a fixed size of one octet and contains 2
reserved bits (R bits). LTE Rel-8, 9 & 10 supports only one
carrier group and there is no need to indicate to which carrier
group the time alignment command may apply. The time alignment
command is applied to uplink carriers including first carrier and
second carrier(s) of a wireless device. There is a need for
enhancing the time alignment procedure in LTE Rel-8, 9 & 10 to
efficiently support multiple carrier groups. In release 11 or
above, when multiple carrier groups are configured, a MAC CE
identifying the carrier group to which the time alignment value
applies may be used. The R bits may be employed to signal the
carrier group to which the time alignment value applies. The R bits
of the timing advance command MAC control elements may be employed
to signal the time alignment group. In this embodiment, one time
alignment is included in a MAC CE. If multiple time alignment, each
for a different carrier group, need to be transmitted, then
multiple CEs may be transmitted.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, when the R
bits are set to 0, MAC CE indicates the carrier group of the first
carrier (first carrier group) and other values are addressed to
other carrier groups (second carrier groups). This would allow for
a maximum of four time alignment groups. Zero may be used for the R
bits correspond to first carrier group, and other values may be
used for second carrier groups. This solution may reduce the
changes to the release 8, 9, 10 MAC layer, and enhance the MAC CE
time alignment command to multiple carrier groups. RRC layer may
configure carrier groups for a second carrier (implicitly or
explicitly) and may assign a carrier group index to a carrier
group. The index that is introduced for a carrier group in RRC may
be employed for the setting of the R bits. Carrier group index
configured by RRC may be used to indicate carrier group where the
time alignment command applies. This may imply that the RRC
signaling may configure up to 4 carrier group indices.
One carrier group in one time alignment command may be supported.
R.11 or above wireless devices may check R bits in MAC CE, but R.10
or below wireless devices may not need to check the R bits.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, an R.11 or
above wireless device with one configured carrier group (first
carrier group) may not need to check the R bits. A 6-bit time
alignment value may be associated with a carrier group using 2-bit
carrier group index. This enhancement may support transmitting time
alignment value for a specific carrier group without adding the
size of MAC CE command compared to release 8, 9, 10. Two bits of
carrier group index bits are introduced before the 6 bits of time
alignment value. This may require a new definition for MAC CE
command that would be applicable to release 11 or above wireless
devices. A method to introduce this new MAC CE command is to
introduce a new MAC LCID for this new format. This is a viable
implementation option. This may increase the number of used MAC
LCIDs. An embodiment is introduced here that would allow to use the
same MAC LCID as in Rel-8, 9 & 10 for Rel-11 multiple carrier
group configuration. The same LCID as in Rel-8, 9 & 10 may be
used in this embodiment applicable to multiple carrier group
configuration in release 11 or beyond. Base station transmits time
alignment MAC CEs to wireless devices in unicast messages. Base
station has the information about the current LTE release supported
by the wireless device. This information may be available to the
base station via network signaling or via air interface signaling
(wireless device capability message received from the wireless
device). Base station may use the same LCID for the legacy time
alignment MAC CE and the newly introduced time alignment MAC CE. If
the MAC CE is transmitted to the release 8, 9, LTE wireless
devices, then the R bits may not include a carrier group index. If
the MAC CE is transmitted to the release 11 or above wireless
devices, then the R bits may include the carrier group index if
multiple carrier groups are configured. If multiple carrier groups
are not configured, then time alignment value is applied all the
configured and active carriers.
This enhancement may not require introducing a new LCID, although a
new MAC CE format is introduced for transmitting time alignment
commands. Both legacy time alignment MAC CEs and new time alignment
MAC CEs may use the same LCID and that reduces the number of LCIDs
used in the MAC layer (compared with the scenario where a new LCID
is introduced) and may further simplify wireless device
implementation. Base station may consider wireless device LTE
release or may consider the number of configured carrier groups (1
for first carrier group only configuration, more than 1 for first
carrier group and second carrier group configuration) to decide if
legacy MAC CE format should be used or new MAC CE format should be
used. If a wireless device is a release 8, 9, 10, then legacy MAC
CE is used. For release 11 or above wireless devices with one
carrier group configuration (only first carrier group), base
station may use legacy MAC CE, or use new MAC CEs with RR bits set
to first carrier group index (for example 0 for first carrier
group). For release 11 or above wireless devices (or for release 11
or above wireless devices with multiple carrier group
configuration), base station may use the new MAC CE format, wherein
RR bits set to the carrier group index, which was configured in
wireless device employing RRC configuration messages.
In an example, wireless devices (for example: wireless device1,
wireless device2) communicating with a base station may support
different releases of LTE technology. For example, wireless device2
may support releases 8, 9, 10, and 11 of LTE, and wireless device1
may support releases 8, 9 and 10 (or for example may support
release 8, or may support 8 & 9). In another example, wireless
devices (for example: wireless device1, wireless device2)
communicating with a base station may support different
capabilities of LTE technology. For example, wireless device2 may
support multiple carrier groups, and wireless device1 may not
support multiple carrier groups. Base station may send MAC time
alignment CEs to the wireless devices (wireless device1, wireless
device2) in unicast messages. MAC time alignment CEs may have the
same LCID for wireless device1 and wireless device2. The wireless
devices (wireless device1, wireless device2) may interpret MAC time
alignment CE messages for adjusting uplink timing differently
dependent on the LTE release they support and are operating. The
same exact message may be processed differently by wireless device1
and wireless device2. For example, in a scenario, where MAC LCID
indicate MAC time alignment CE, and RR field is 00, wireless
device1 may not consider the value of the two bits before time
alignment value (RR). Wireless device1 may change the uplink
transmission timing for all configured and active uplink carriers
according to the time alignment value in the MAC command. Wireless
device2 may however, decode the value of two bits before time
alignment value (RR=carrier group index), and when the two bits are
for example 00, wireless device1 may only update the transmission
timing for active carriers belonging to first carrier group
according to the time alignment value. The first two bits may
indicate the carrier group index to which the time alignment may
apply. Therefore, the same MAC CE message content may be processed
differently by different wireless devices operating in different
LTE releases. In another example embodiment, multiple carrier
groups feature may be an optional feature in release 11. Wireless
device1 may be a release 11 wireless device without multiple
carrier group capability. Wireless device2 may be a release 11 (or
above) wireless device with multiple carrier group capability. A
wireless device with multiple carrier group capability may also
operate in a single time alignment mode depending on base station
release and/or network configuration (one carrier group
configuration). For example, when a multiple carrier group release
11 wireless device communicate to a release 10 base station, it may
interpret all base station commands as release 10 commands.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may transmit a plurality of unicast timing advance commands
to a plurality of wireless devices for adjusting uplink
transmission timing by the plurality of wireless devices. Each of
the plurality of wireless devices may operate in a mode. The mode
may comprise: a) a first mode employable by all of the plurality of
wireless devices, or a second mode employable only by a subset of
the plurality of wireless devices. Each of the plurality of
wireless devices being addressed by at least one of the plurality
of unicast timing advance commands may interpret differently the at
least one of the plurality of unicast timing advance commands
depending on the mode in which each of the plurality of wireless
devices is operating. The plurality of unicast timing advance
commands may have the same format for the plurality of wireless
devices operating in the first mode and the plurality of wireless
devices operating in the second mode. The format may comprise: a) a
subheader being the same for the plurality of unicast timing
advance commands, and b) a control element comprising a timing
advance value. The first mode may be configured to be compatible
with release 10 of LTE-Advance technology. The second mode may be
configured to be compatible with release 11 of LTE-Advance
technology.
During the connection establishment process, a base station may
transmit a first control message to a wireless device (wireless
device) on a first downlink carrier of a first carrier to establish
a first signaling bearer with the wireless device on the first
carrier. The wireless device may transmit radio capability
parameters to the base station on the first signaling bearer on a
first uplink carrier of the first carrier.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, radio
capability parameters may include a parameter indicating support
for multiple carrier groups. Support for multiple carrier groups
may be considered an optional feature in release 11, and a base
station may not know if a wireless device supports multiple carrier
groups capabilities until it receives a wireless device capability
message from the wireless device indicating that the wireless
device supports multiple carrier groups feature. Before base
station configures first carrier group and second carrier group(s),
base station may receive and process wireless device capability
regarding wireless device multiple carrier groups capabilities.
Supporting multiple carrier group capability may require that
wireless device includes new hardware and/or software features that
provide such a capability. Multiple time alignment capability may
be an optional capability for Rel-11 wireless device and its
support may depend on wireless device's hardware, DSP, software
designs, and/or the like. A wireless device may send at least one
time alignment capability parameter to the base station. Base
station may configure wireless device's second carrier group(s) and
first carrier group within the wireless device capability. For
example, a wireless device may indicate how many second carrier
groups it may support. Base station may configure wireless device
second carrier group(s) based, at least in part, on the number of
supported second carrier groups in a wireless device. In another
example, wireless device may explicitly or implicitly indicate if
it supports inter-band or intra-band multiple carrier groups, or
both. In an example embodiment, support for multiple carrier groups
may be mandatory in release 11. A base station may find out about
multiple carrier group capability employing information exchanged
between the wireless device and the base station.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, multiple
carrier group capability may be explicitly or implicitly
communicated to base station. In an example embodiment, inter-band
and/or intra-band carrier aggregation may be configured with
multiple carrier groups. Wireless device may send multiple carrier
group capability based on each supported band combinations.
Wireless devices that could be configured with inter-band carrier
aggregation may need multiple carrier groups (multiple time
alignment) configuration. Carriers in a band may experience a
different delay compared with a different band and a band may need
its own carrier group configuration. A carrier group configuration
for carriers for a band may be required. In a multiple band
wireless device, multiple carrier groups may be configured, for
example one carrier group per band. Wireless device may comprise a
plurality of RF chains to support inter-band carrier aggregation. A
wireless device may support multiple carrier groups if the wireless
device support inter-band carrier aggregation. In an example
embodiment, when a wireless device transmits wireless device band
combination information for inter-band carrier aggregation, it may
imply that that wireless device supports multiple carrier groups
for those bands, and transmission of a separate information element
for multiple carrier group capability may not be required.
A wireless device transceiver architecture may support
non-contiguous and/or contiguous carrier aggregation in intra-band.
Wireless device may support multiple carrier groups in partial or
all supportable intra-band carrier aggregation. Support for
multiple carrier groups may depend on wireless device structure,
and some wireless devices may not support intra-band multiple
carrier group configurations depending on wireless devices
transceiver structure. In an example embodiment, a wireless device
may communicate its multiple carrier group capability to the base
station for intra-band communication. A wireless device may
transmit the multiple carrier group capability information for
contiguous intra-band carrier aggregation and/or non-contiguous
intra-band carrier aggregation. In another example embodiment, a
wireless device may also communicate wireless device inter-band
carrier group capability to the base station.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may indicate its multiple carrier group capability in
different information elements for inter-band and intra-band
multiple carrier group capability. Each information element may
have its own format. In an example embodiment, multiple carrier
group capability for intra-band and/or inter-band may be
communicated employing at least one parameter and may comprise an
index, for example, a band combination index, a configuration
index, a band-type index, a combination of the above, and/or the
like. The base station may employ an internally stored look-up
table to interpret the index. Wireless device may transmit at least
one parameter including the index to the base station. The base
station may use a set of pre-stored configuration options (for
example in a look-up table, information list, a stored file, and/or
the like format). The base station may receive the index and
determine some of the multiple carrier groups capabilities
according to the index. For example, an index three may indicate a
multiple carrier group capability supporting band A and band B. In
another example, an index four may indicate a multiple carrier
group capability of a pre-define intra-band configuration. These
configurations are for example only and other examples employing
configuration index may be possible. The indexing may reduce the
number bits employed for transmitting multiple carrier group
capability to the base station.
In an example embodiment, a wireless device may indicate its
multiple carrier group capability in an information elements for
inter-band and intra-band multiple carrier group capability. All
the possible inter-band and intra-band combinations may be
transmitted in the same information element field and a base
station may detect wireless device inter-band and intra-band
capability employing the received information element, for example,
in a wireless device capability message. In an implementation
option, an index may be employed to indicate both inter-band and
intra-band configuration options.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may receive (explicitly or implicitly) information about
whether a wireless device supports multiple carrier group
capability using network signaling on an interface to the core
network (for example the interface to mobility management entity).
This information may be received from a mobility management entity
during the RRC connection signaling. Some of the multiple carrier
groups options may be considered supported by default or may be
considered supported based on some other capability parameters. For
example, any wireless device supporting inter-band carriers and
supporting multiple carrier groups feature may be assumed that is
supporting inter-band multiple time alignments. Or for example,
intra-band time alignment may be considered a default feature of
the wireless device supporting multiple carrier groups feature. In
another example, support for intra-band time alignment may need to
be explicitly reported to base station by the wireless device.
In an example embodiment, both inter-band and intra-band carrier
aggregation may support multiple carrier groups configurations. For
example, carriers in the same carrier group may be in the same or
different bands. In another example, carriers in the same band may
belong to same or different carrier groups. In an example
embodiment, carrier group configuration may not be band-specific
and may work with the current wireless device working band
combination. In another example, a wireless device may report its
multiple carrier group capability based on supported band
combinations. Support for multiple carrier group configurations may
imply that one or more of the following features are supported by
the wireless device: i) Parallel transmission of a preamble on a
second carrier uplink carrier (second carrier PRACH) and PUSCH on
at least one other carrier; ii) Parallel transmission of a preamble
on second carrier uplink carrier (second carrier PRACH) and PUCCH
on at least one other carrier, for example the first carrier; iii)
Parallel transmission of preamble on second carrier uplink carrier,
PUCCH (for example on first carrier), and PUSCH on at least one
other carrier. This feature may be supported if parallel
transmission of PUCCH and PUSCH is supported by the wireless
device; iv) Processing MAC time alignment CE commands including
carrier group index. The wireless device may apply the time
alignment value to the proper carrier group according to carrier
group index in the MAC time alignment CE; v) Running random access
process on a second carrier belong to a second carrier group. This
feature may require transmission of random access preamble on an
uplink carrier belonging to a second carrier of a second carrier
group; vi) Maintaining more than one time alignment timer in the
wireless device; vii) Grouping carriers into multiple carrier
groups, wherein a carrier group timing is managed based, at least
in part, on a different timing reference second carrier and time
alignments associated with a carrier group. A wireless device may
need to synchronize and track synchronization signals of multiple
downlink carriers, one reference carrier synchronization signal for
a carrier group. A carrier group may have its own timing reference
second carrier, which is different than the timing reference
carrier of another carrier group.
In an example embodiment, a wireless device supporting multiple
carrier groups feature may support one or more of the above
features. For example, the supported feature may be based, at least
in part, on the parameters of the wireless device capability
message and other predetermined parameters (explicitly or
implicitly determined by signaling messages or technology
specifications) and/or other signaling messages. In an example
embodiment, a wireless device supporting multiple carrier groups
feature may support all the features itemized above. A wireless
device that does not support multiple carrier groups feature may
support none of the above features. In another example embodiment,
a wireless device supporting multiple carrier groups feature may
support all the above features. A wireless device that does not
support multiple carrier groups feature may not support
all-of-the-above features.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the base
station may transmit a synchronization signal on a first downlink
carrier via the communication interface. The synchronization signal
may indicate a physical cell ID for the first carrier. The
synchronization signal may provide timing information for the first
downlink carrier. In an example embodiment, the synchronization
signal may be a signal with a pre-defined structure that is
transmitted at a predefined time and subcarriers. FIG. 7 depicts
message flows between a base station 602 and a wireless device 601
as per an aspect of an embodiment of the present invention. The
base station 602 may receive a random access preamble 703 on a
second plurality of subcarriers from the wireless device 601 on a
first uplink carrier in the plurality of uplink carriers. The first
uplink carrier corresponds to the first downlink carrier. The
timing of the random access preamble is determined based, at least
in part, on the synchronization signal timing and many other
parameters including parameters received from the base station by
the wireless device. The base station 602 may transmit a long time
alignment command 704 in a random access response to the wireless
device 601 on a third plurality of subcarriers on the first
downlink carrier. The long time alignment command may indicate an
amount of required time adjustment for signal transmission on the
first uplink carrier.
The base station may transmit at least one configuration message
705 to the wireless device. The at least one configuration message
is configured to configure at least one additional carrier (also
called secondary carrier or second carrier) in the wireless device.
An additional carrier in the at least one additional carrier may
comprise an additional downlink carrier and zero or one additional
uplink carrier. The base station may also configure carrier groups
comprising a first carrier group and a second carrier group. The
first carrier group includes the first carrier and zero or more
additional carrier. The second carrier group includes at least one
of the at least one additional carrier. The base station may also
transmit an activation command 705 to the wireless device. The
activation command may be configured to activate in the wireless
device at least one of at least one additional carrier.
The base station 602 may transmit a control command to the wireless
device 601 for transmission of a random access preamble on one of
the additional uplink carriers of the second carrier group. The
base station may transmit a random access response containing a
long time alignment command in response to reception of said random
access preamble. The base station may transmit signals to the
wireless device on the first downlink carrier and at least one
additional downlink carrier. The signals may carry control packets
or data packets, or may be physical layer signals. Frame and
subframe transmission timing of the first downlink carrier and the
at least one additional downlink carrier may be substantially
synchronized. Base station 602 may receive signals 706 from the
wireless device 601 on the first uplink carrier and the at least
one additional uplink carrier. The received signals 706 may carry
control or data packets, or may be physical layer signals. The base
station 602 may transmit at least one short time alignment command
707 to the wireless device 601. The short time alignment command
comprises at least one short time alignment entity. Each short time
alignment entity may comprise: a) an amount of time adjustment, and
b) an index identifying a carrier group. Long time alignment
commands are contained in random access responses. Short time
alignment commands are contained in MAC time alignment command
control elements.
FIG. 6 illustrates the subframe timing as per an aspect of an
embodiment of the present invention. The subframe signals of
carrier zero 603, carrier one 604 and carrier two 605 are
transmitted by the wireless device 601. Carriers are divided into
two groups. The first group includes carrier 0 and carrier 1, and
the second group includes carrier 2. The signals of a carrier may
experience a different transmission delay compared to another
carrier. In an example, the signals received from carrier zero 603
and carrier one 604 require TA1 606, and the signals received from
carrier two 605 requires TA2 607 in order to be aligned with the
reference time 608 at the base station 602. Base station 602
transmits time alignment commands to the wireless device. The time
alignment commands are configured to cause adjustment of carrier(s)
transmission time. The time alignment value for different carrier
groups may be different. Upon reception of the commands by the
wireless device 601, the wireless device 601 may adjust uplink
carrier signal timings of the corresponding carrier group
accordingly. Then the received signals at the base station 602 may
become substantially synchronized with the signals received from
other wireless devices (not shown in the FIG. 6). In this example,
signal reception time of carrier zero 603, carrier one 604 and
carrier two 605 are to be substantially synchronized at the base
station 602.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the
primary synchronization signal may be generated employing a
frequency-domain Zadoff-Chu sequence. The primary synchronization
signal may be mapped to the last OFDM symbol in slots 0 and 10 for
FDD frame structure. The primary synchronization signal may be
mapped to the third OFDM symbol in subframes 1 and 6 for TDD frame
structure. The secondary synchronization signal may be generated
employing an interleaved concatenation of two length-31 binary
sequences. The concatenated sequence may be scrambled with a
scrambling sequence given by the primary synchronization signal.
The secondary synchronization signal may differ between subframe 0
and subframe 5. The timing information provided by synchronization
signal may comprise subframe timing and frame timing.
The base station may transmit a control command, for example in the
form of a PDCCH order, to the wireless device initiating
transmission of the random access preamble by the wireless device.
In the first carrier group, the transmission of the random access
preamble on the first carrier may be initiated by the MAC sub-layer
in the wireless device. The base station may transmit random access
parameters to the wireless device. The parameters may be employed
for generating a random access preamble by the wireless device. The
parameters may also be employed for determining a transmission time
for the random access preamble by the wireless device. The long
time alignment command transmitted by the base station may be
included in a random access response message. The configuring task
of the at least one additional carrier may comprise configuring at
least one of a physical layer parameter, a MAC layer parameter and
an RLC layer parameter. The activating task of a carrier in the at
least one additional carrier in the wireless device may comprise
processing the received signal of the carrier by the wireless
device. The activating task may also comprise the wireless device
potentially transmitting packets/signals employing the carrier.
There may be at least a guard band between two carriers.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the random
access procedure may be initiated by a physical downlink control
channel (PDCCH) order or by the MAC sublayer in the wireless
device. If a wireless device receives a PDCCH message consistent
with a PDCCH order masked with its radio identifier, it may
initiate a random access procedure. Preamble transmission on
physical random access channel (PRACH) may be supported on the
uplink carrier and reception of a PDCCH order may be supported on
the downlink carrier. Before the wireless device initiates
transmission of a random access preamble, it may access one or many
of the following information: a) the available set of PRACH
resources for the transmission of the random access preamble, b)
the groups of random access preambles and the set of available
random access preambles in each group, c) the random access
response window size, d) the power-ramping factor, e) the maximum
number of preamble transmissions, f) the initial preamble power, g)
the preamble format based offset, h) the contention resolution
timer, and/or the like. These parameters may be updated from upper
layers or may be received from the base station before a random
access procedure is initiated.
The wireless device may select a random access preamble using the
available information. The preamble may be signaled by the base
station or it may be randomly selected by the wireless device. The
wireless device may determine the next available subframe
containing PRACH permitted by the restrictions given by the base
station and physical layer timing requirements for TDD or FDD.
Subframe timing and the timing of transmitting the random access
preamble may be determined based on the synchronization signals
received from the base station and the information received from
the base station. The wireless device may proceed to the
transmission of the random access preamble when it has determined
the timing. The random access preamble is transmitted on a second
plurality of subcarriers on the first uplink carrier.
Once the random access preamble is transmitted, the wireless device
may monitor the PDCCH of the first downlink carrier for random
access response(s) identified by the RA-RNTI during the random
access response window. RA-RNTI is the identifier in PDCCH that
identifies a random access response. The wireless device may stop
monitoring for random access response(s) after successful reception
of a random access response containing a random access preamble
identifier that matches the transmitted random access preamble.
Base station random access response may include a long time
alignment command. The wireless device may process the received
long time alignment command and adjust its uplink transmission
timing according the time alignment value in the command. For
example, in a random access response, long time alignment command
may be coded using 11 bits, where an amount of the time alignment
is based on the value in command. When an uplink transmission is
required, the base station may provide the wireless device a grant
for uplink transmission.
If no random access response is received within the random access
response window, or if none of all received random access responses
contains a random access preamble identifier corresponding to the
transmitted random access preamble, the random access response
reception may be considered not successful and the wireless device
may, based on the backoff parameter in the wireless device, select
a random backoff time. The wireless device may delay the subsequent
random access transmission by the backoff time, and may retransmit
another random access preamble. The wireless device may transmit
packets on the first uplink carrier and the at least one additional
uplink carrier. Uplink packet transmission timing for a carrier
group may be obtained in the wireless device employing, at least in
part, timing of a synchronization signals received in a downlink
carrier of the carrier group. Upon reception of a timing alignment
command by the wireless device, the wireless device may adjust the
uplink transmission timing of the corresponding carrier group. The
timing alignment command may indicate the change of the uplink
timing relative to the current uplink timing of the carrier group.
Adjustment of the uplink timing by a positive or a negative amount
indicates advancing or delaying the uplink transmission timing by a
given amount respectively.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the
wireless device may receive at least one control message from a
base station. The at least one control message may configure a
plurality of carriers and a plurality of carrier groups. Each
carrier group may comprise at least one downlink carrier and at
least one uplink carrier. The uplink carriers in a carrier group
may employ the same timing reference. The wireless device may
receive an activation command from the base station. The activation
command may activate at least one carrier of a carrier group in the
plurality of carrier groups. The wireless device may receive a
control command from the base station. The control command may
direct the wireless device to initiate random access procedure on
an uplink carrier of a carrier group. The wireless device may
obtain initial uplink timing alignment for the carrier group,
through the initiated random access procedure.
The wireless device may transmit data on a subset of subframes in
the plurality of subframes on a subset of at least one uplink
carrier in the carrier group. The random access procedure may be a
non-contention based random access procedure. The at least one
control message may be at least one unicast RRC control message and
may comprise at least one of: a) a plurality of carrier group
identifiers, and b) a carrier index associated to configured
carriers. Each carrier may be associated with a carrier group
identifier in the plurality of carrier group identifiers. The
activation command may be a MAC activation command received from a
serving base station. The activation command may activate at least
one carrier of a carrier group in the plurality of carrier groups.
The MAC activation command may comprise the carrier index of the
carries to be activated. The control command may be a PDCCH control
message from the base station. The PDCCH control message may direct
the wireless device to initiate random access procedure on an
uplink carrier of the carrier group. The PDCCH message may comprise
a preamble index.
The wireless device may initiate a random access procedure by
transmitting a random access preamble corresponding to the preamble
index. The random access preamble may be transmitted in a plurality
of random access resources configured by the base station. The
wireless device may obtain initial uplink timing alignment for the
carrier group, through the initiated random access procedure. The
wireless device may transmit data on a subset of subframes in the
plurality of subframes on a subset of at least one uplink carrier
in the carrier group. The random access procedure may be a
non-contention based random access procedure. The wireless device
may maintain a separate timing alignment timer for each carrier
group in the plurality of carrier groups.
The PDCCH control message may be received on the scheduling
downlink carrier of the uplink carrier. Multiple random access
preambles may be transmitted in a plurality of random access
resources in the same subframe by various wireless devices. The at
least one unicast RRC control message may further comprise the
configuration of the random access resources. Uplink timing
reference for the carrier group may be maintained, at least in
part, using MAC time alignment messages. The PDCCH message may
further include a carrier index. The PDCCH message may further
include a power control command. PDCCH message may be scrambled
using an identifier of the wireless device.
Serving carriers having uplink to which the same time alignment
applies may be grouped in a time alignment group or a carrier
group. Each carrier group may include at least one downlink carrier
with at least one configured uplink carrier. The mapping of each
downlink carrier to a carrier group may be configured by the
serving base station employing RRC message(s). Time alignment
maintenance for the carrier group containing the primary carrier
may follow the release 8, 9 or 10 of LTE standard for time
alignment maintenance. To obtain initial uplink time alignment for
a secondary downlink carrier not grouped together with the primary
downlink carrier, base station may initiate a random access
procedure. The number of time alignment timer to be maintained may
be one per carrier group. Time alignment timers may be configured
by the base station. The random access procedure on secondary
carriers may be initiated by the base station. The base station may
initiate the random access procedure via a control message (for
example a PDCCH order) for an activated secondary carrier.
Non-contention based random access procedure may be supported.
Cross-carrier scheduling may take place in the random access
procedure for transmission of PDCCH order.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may receive at least one RRC control message from a base
station. The at least one RRC control message may cause
configuration of a plurality of carriers comprising a first carrier
and at least one second carrier. The configuration may associate
with a second carrier in the at least one second carrier: a carrier
group index, a second uplink carrier, a plurality of random access
resource parameters, and/or the like. The carrier group index may
identify a second carrier group. The second carrier group may be
one of a plurality of carrier groups. The second carrier group may
comprise a second subset of the at least one second carrier. The
plurality of random access resource parameters may identify random
access resources.
The wireless device may receive from the base station, a control
command. The control command may cause the wireless device to
transmit a random access preamble on the second uplink carrier. The
control command may comprise a preamble index corresponding to the
random access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random
access preamble on the random access resources on the second uplink
carrier. Transmission timing of the random access preamble may be
determined, at least in part, by employing a synchronization signal
transmitted on one of at least one downlink carrier in the second
carrier group. Uplink transmissions in the second carrier group may
employ the synchronization signal as timing reference.
The wireless device may receive a long time alignment command on
the first carrier in response to the random access preamble
transmission. The long time alignment command may comprise the
preamble index and a long time adjustment value. The wireless
device may receive at least one short time alignment command from
the base station. The short time alignment command may comprise a
short time adjustment value and an index. The short time adjustment
value range may be substantially smaller than the long time
adjustment value range. The index may identify the second carrier
group. The wireless device may apply the time adjustment value to
uplink signals transmitted on all activated uplink carriers in the
second carrier group. The wireless device may apply the time
adjustment value such that the base station receives substantially
aligned uplink signals in frames and subframes of the second
carrier group.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the long
time alignment command may not comprise an index identifying the
second carrier group. The long time alignment command may comprise
a preamble index. The short time alignment command may not comprise
a preamble index. The short time alignment command may comprise an
index identifying the second carrier group. The plurality of
carrier groups may further comprise a first carrier group
comprising a first subset of the plurality of carriers. The first
subset may comprise the first carrier with a first downlink carrier
and a first uplink carrier. Uplink transmissions by the wireless
device in the first carrier group may employ a first
synchronization signal transmitted on the first downlink carrier as
timing reference.
Transmission of the control command may be initiated by a MAC
sub-layer in the base station. The wireless device may receive
random access parameters from the base station. The parameters may
be configured to be employed in the generation of the random access
preamble by the wireless device. The random access parameters may
be configured to be employed in the determination of the random
access preamble transmission time.
The long time alignment command may be received in a random access
response message. In an example embodiment, the long time
adjustment value may be encoded employing 11 bits. The short time
alignment value may be encoded employing 6 bits.
The wireless device may receive an activation command from the base
station prior to receiving the control command. The activation
command causing activation of the second carrier in the wireless
device, the activation causing the wireless device to process
downlink received signals on the second carrier.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may transmit a first synchronization signal on a first
downlink carrier of a first carrier in a plurality of carriers. The
base station may receive a random access preamble on a first uplink
carrier of the first carrier. The timing of the random access
preamble transmission may be determined based, at least in part, on
the first synchronization signal timing. The base station may
transmit at least one RRC control message. The at least one RRC
control message may cause configuration of at least one additional
carrier in the wireless device. The configuration may associate
with an additional carrier in the at least one additional carrier a
carrier group index identifying a second carrier group. The second
carrier group may be one of a plurality of carrier groups. The
second carrier group may comprise a subset of the at least one
additional carrier.
The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, signals on
the first carrier and the at least one additional carrier. Downlink
frames and subframes transmission timing for the first carrier and
the at least one additional carrier may be substantially time
aligned with each other. The base station may receive uplink
signals from the wireless device on the additional carrier. The
base station may transmit, to the wireless device, at least one
time alignment command computed based, at least in part, on timing
of the received uplink signals. The time alignment command may
comprise a time adjustment value and an index identifying the
second carrier group. The at least one time alignment command
causes substantial alignment of reception timing of uplink signals
in frames and subframes of the second carrier group. Uplink
transmission timing of frames and subframes of the first carrier
and the additional carrier employ different synchronization signals
as timing reference and are adjusted in response to different time
alignment commands.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the first
synchronization signal comprises a primary synchronization signal
and a secondary synchronization signal. The synchronization signal
may be configured to: indicate a physical carrier ID for the first
carrier; provide transmission timing information for the first
downlink carrier; be transmitted employing a first plurality of
subcarriers, and/or the like. Transmission time may be divided into
a plurality of frames. Each frame in the plurality of frames may
further be divided into a plurality of subframes. The first
plurality of subcarriers may be substantially in the center of the
frequency band of the first downlink carrier on the first and sixth
subframe of each frame in the plurality of frames.
The base station may generate the primary synchronization signal
employing a frequency-domain Zadoff-Chu sequence. The base station
may generate the secondary synchronization signal employing an
interleaved concatenation of two 31 bit length binary sequences.
The base station may scramble the concatenated sequence with a
scrambling sequence given by the primary synchronization signal.
The secondary synchronization signal may differ between subframe 0
and subframe 5. The timing information may comprises subframe
timing and frame timing. The configuration of the at least one
additional carrier may comprise configuring at least one of a
physical layer parameter, a MAC layer parameter and an RLC layer
parameter.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may transmit at least one RRC control message. The at least
one RRC control message may cause configuration of a plurality of
carriers comprising a first carrier and at least one additional
carrier in the wireless device. The configuration may associate
with a carrier in the plurality of carriers a carrier group index
identifying a carrier group. The carrier group may be one of a
plurality of carrier groups. The plurality of carrier groups may
comprise a first carrier group and a second carrier group. The
first carrier group may comprise a first subset of the plurality of
carriers. The first subset may comprise the first carrier. The
second carrier group may comprise a subset of the at least one
additional carrier.
The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, signals on
the plurality of carriers. Downlink frames and subframes
transmission timing for the first carrier and the at least one
additional carrier may be substantially time aligned with each
other. The base station may receive uplink signals from the
wireless device on the plurality of carriers. The base station may
transmit, to the wireless device, at least one time alignment
command. The time alignment command may comprise a time adjustment
value and an index identifying one carrier group. Uplink
transmission timing of frames and subframes in the first carrier
group and the second carrier group may employ different
synchronization signals on different carriers as timing reference
and are adjusted in response to different time alignment
commands.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may receive a plurality of radio capability parameters from
the wireless device on the first carrier. The plurality of radio
capability parameters may comprise at least one parameter
indicating whether the wireless device supports configuration of a
plurality of carrier groups. If the plurality of radio capability
parameters may indicate that the wireless device supports
configuration of a plurality of carrier groups, the base station
may, selectively based on at least one criterion, transmit the at
least one RRC control message to cause configuration of the
plurality of carrier groups in the wireless device. Uplink
transmissions by the wireless device in the first carrier group may
employs a first synchronization signal transmitted on a first
downlink carrier of the first carrier as a timing reference. Uplink
transmissions by the wireless device in the second carrier group
may employ a second synchronization signal transmitted on one of at
least one downlink carrier in the second carrier group.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may receive at least one RRC control message from a base
station. The at least one RRC control message may cause
configuration of a plurality of carriers comprising a first carrier
and at least one second carrier. The configuration may associate
with a second carrier in the at least one second carrier: a carrier
group index, a second uplink carrier, a plurality of random access
resource parameters, and/or the like. The carrier group index may
identify a second carrier group. The second carrier group may be
one of a plurality of carrier groups. The second carrier group may
comprise a second subset of the at least one second carrier. The
plurality of random access resource parameters may identify random
access resources.
The wireless device may receive from the base station, a control
command. The control command may cause the wireless device to
transmit a random access preamble on the second uplink carrier. The
control command may comprise a preamble index corresponding to the
random access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random
access preamble on the random access resources on the second uplink
carrier. Transmission timing of the random access preamble may be
determined, at least in part, by employing a synchronization signal
transmitted on one of at least one downlink carrier in the second
carrier group. Uplink transmissions in the second carrier group may
employ the synchronization signal as timing reference.
The wireless device may receive a long time alignment command on
the first carrier in response to the random access preamble
transmission. The long time alignment command may comprise the
preamble index and a long time adjustment value. The wireless
device may receive at least one short time alignment command from
the base station. The short time alignment command may comprise a
short time adjustment value and an index. The short time adjustment
value range may be substantially smaller than the long time
adjustment value range. The index may identify the second carrier
group. The wireless device may apply the time adjustment value to
uplink signals transmitted on all activated uplink carriers in the
second carrier group. The wireless device may apply the time
adjustment value such that the base station receives substantially
aligned uplink signals in frames and subframes of the second
carrier group.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the long
time alignment command may not comprise an index identifying the
second carrier group. The long time alignment command may comprise
a preamble index. The short time alignment command may not comprise
a preamble index. The short time alignment command may comprise an
index identifying the second carrier group. The plurality of
carrier groups may further comprise a first carrier group
comprising a first subset of the plurality of carriers. The first
subset may comprise the first carrier with a first downlink carrier
and a first uplink carrier. Uplink transmissions by the wireless
device in the first carrier group may employ a first
synchronization signal transmitted on the first downlink carrier as
timing reference.
Transmission of the control command may be initiated by a MAC
sub-layer in the base station. The wireless device may receive
random access parameters from the base station. The parameters may
be configured to be employed in the generation of the random access
preamble by the wireless device. The random access parameters may
be configured to be employed in the determination of the random
access preamble transmission time.
The long time alignment command may be received in a random access
response message. In an example embodiment, the long time
adjustment value may be encoded employing 11 bits. The short time
alignment value may be encoded employing 6 bits.
The wireless device may receive an activation command from the base
station prior to receiving the control command. The activation
command causing activation of the second carrier in the wireless
device, the activation causing the wireless device to process
downlink received signals on the second carrier.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may transmit a first synchronization signal on a first
downlink carrier of a first carrier in a plurality of carriers. The
base station may receive a random access preamble on a first uplink
carrier of the first carrier. The timing of the random access
preamble transmission may be determined based, at least in part, on
the first synchronization signal timing. The base station may
transmit at least one RRC control message. The at least one RRC
control message may cause configuration of at least one additional
carrier in the wireless device. The configuration may associate
with an additional carrier in the at least one additional carrier a
carrier group index identifying a second carrier group. The second
carrier group may be one of a plurality of carrier groups. The
second carrier group may comprise a subset of the at least one
additional carrier.
The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, signals on
the first carrier and the at least one additional carrier. Downlink
frames and subframes transmission timing for the first carrier and
the at least one additional carrier may be substantially time
aligned with each other. The base station may receive uplink
signals from the wireless device on the additional carrier. The
base station may transmit, to the wireless device, at least one
time alignment command computed based, at least in part, on timing
of the received uplink signals. The time alignment command may
comprise a time adjustment value and an index identifying the
second carrier group. The at least one time alignment command
causes substantial alignment of reception timing of uplink signals
in frames and subframes of the second carrier group. Uplink
transmission timing of frames and subframes of the first carrier
and the additional carrier employ different synchronization signals
as timing reference and are adjusted in response to different time
alignment commands.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the first
synchronization signal comprises a primary synchronization signal
and a secondary synchronization signal. The synchronization signal
may be configured to: indicate a physical carrier ID for the first
carrier; provide transmission timing information for the first
downlink carrier; be transmitted employing a first plurality of
subcarriers, and/or the like. Transmission time may be divided into
a plurality of frames. Each frame in the plurality of frames may
further be divided into a plurality of subframes. The first
plurality of subcarriers may be substantially in the center of the
frequency band of the first downlink carrier on the first and sixth
subframe of each frame in the plurality of frames.
The base station may generate the primary synchronization signal
employing a frequency-domain Zadoff-Chu sequence. The base station
may generate the secondary synchronization signal employing an
interleaved concatenation of two 31 bit length binary sequences.
The base station may scramble the concatenated sequence with a
scrambling sequence given by the primary synchronization signal.
The secondary synchronization signal may differ between subframe 0
and subframe 5. The timing information may comprises subframe
timing and frame timing. The configuration of the at least one
additional carrier may comprise configuring at least one of a
physical layer parameter, a MAC layer parameter and an RLC layer
parameter.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may transmit at least one RRC control message. The at least
one RRC control message may cause configuration of a plurality of
carriers comprising a first carrier and at least one additional
carrier in the wireless device. The configuration may associate
with a carrier in the plurality of carriers a carrier group index
identifying a carrier group. The carrier group may be one of a
plurality of carrier groups. The plurality of carrier groups may
comprise a first carrier group and a second carrier group. The
first carrier group may comprise a first subset of the plurality of
carriers. The first subset may comprise the first carrier. The
second carrier group may comprise a subset of the at least one
additional carrier.
The base station may transmit, to the wireless device, signals on
the plurality of carriers. Downlink frames and subframes
transmission timing for the first carrier and the at least one
additional carrier may be substantially time aligned with each
other. The base station may receive uplink signals from the
wireless device on the plurality of carriers. The base station may
transmit, to the wireless device, at least one time alignment
command. The time alignment command may comprise a time adjustment
value and an index identifying one carrier group. Uplink
transmission timing of frames and subframes in the first carrier
group and the second carrier group may employ different
synchronization signals on different carriers as timing reference
and are adjusted in response to different time alignment
commands.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a base
station may receive a plurality of radio capability parameters from
the wireless device on the first carrier. The plurality of radio
capability parameters may comprise at least one parameter
indicating whether the wireless device supports configuration of a
plurality of carrier groups. If the plurality of radio capability
parameters may indicate that the wireless device supports
configuration of a plurality of carrier groups, the base station
may, selectively based on at least one criterion, transmit the at
least one RRC control message to cause configuration of the
plurality of carrier groups in the wireless device. Uplink
transmissions by the wireless device in the first carrier group may
employs a first synchronization signal transmitted on a first
downlink carrier of the first carrier as a timing reference. Uplink
transmissions by the wireless device in the second carrier group
may employ a second synchronization signal transmitted on one of at
least one downlink carrier in the second carrier group.
In at least one of the various embodiments, uplink physical
channel(s) may correspond to a set of resource elements carrying
information originating from higher layers. The following example
uplink physical channel(s) may be defined for uplink: a) Physical
Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH), b) Physical Uplink Control Channel
(PUCCH), c) Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH), and/or the
like. Uplink physical signal(s) may be used by the physical layer
and may not carry information originating from higher layers. For
example, reference signal(s) may be considered as uplink physical
signal(s). Transmitted signal(s) in slot(s) may be described by one
or several resource grids including, for example, subcarriers and
SC-FDMA or OFDMA symbols.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, cell
search may be the procedure by which a wireless device may acquire
time and frequency synchronization with a cell and may detect the
physical layer Cell ID of that cell (transmitter). An example
embodiment for synchronization signal and cell search is presented
below. A cell search may support a scalable overall transmission
bandwidth corresponding to 6 resource blocks and upwards. Primary
and secondary synchronization signals may be transmitted in the
downlink and may facilitate cell search. For example, 504 unique
physical-layer cell identities may be defined using synchronization
signals. The physical-layer cell identities may be grouped into 168
unique physical-layer cell-identity groups, group(s) containing
three unique identities. The grouping may be such that
physical-layer cell identit(ies) is part of a physical-layer
cell-identity group. A physical-layer cell identity may be defined
by a number in the range of 0 to 167, representing the
physical-layer cell-identity group, and a number in the range of 0
to 2, representing the physical-layer identity within the
physical-layer cell-identity group. The synchronization signal may
include a primary synchronization signal and a secondary
synchronization signal.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the
sequence used for a primary synchronization signal may be generated
from a frequency-domain Zadoff-Chu sequence according to a
pre-defined formula. A Zadoff-Chu root sequence index may also be
predefined in a specification. The mapping of the sequence to
resource elements may depend on a frame structure. The wireless
device may not assume that the primary synchronization signal is
transmitted on the same antenna port as any of the downlink
reference signals. The wireless device may not assume that any
transmission instance of the primary synchronization signal is
transmitted on the same antenna port, or ports, used for any other
transmission instance of the primary synchronization signal. The
sequence may be mapped to the resource elements according to a
predefined formula.
For FDD frame structure, a primary synchronization signal may be
mapped to the last OFDM symbol in slots 0 and 10. For TDD frame
structure, the primary synchronization signal may be mapped to the
third OFDM symbol in subframes 1 and 6. Some of the resource
elements allocated to primary or secondary synchronization signals
may be reserved and not used for transmission of the primary
synchronization signal.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the
sequence used for a secondary synchronization signal may be an
interleaved concatenation of two length-31 binary sequences. The
concatenated sequence may be scrambled with a scrambling sequence
given by a primary synchronization signal. The combination of two
length-31 sequences defining the secondary synchronization signal
may differ between subframe 0 and subframe 5 according to
predefined formula (s). The mapping of the sequence to resource
elements may depend on the frame structure. In a subframe for FDD
frame structure and in a half-frame for TDD frame structure, the
same antenna port as for the primary synchronization signal may be
used for the secondary synchronization signal. The sequence may be
mapped to resource elements according to a predefined formula.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the
physical layer random access preamble may comprise a cyclic prefix
of length Tcp and a sequence part of length Tseq. The parameter
values may be pre-defined and depend on the frame structure and a
random access configuration. In an example embodiment, Tcp may be
0.1 msec, and Tseq may be 0.9 msec. Higher layers may control the
preamble format. The transmission of a random access preamble, if
triggered by the MAC layer, may be restricted to certain time and
frequency resources. The start of a random access preamble may be
aligned with the start of the corresponding uplink subframe at a
wireless device.
According to an example embodiment, random access preambles may be
generated from Zadoff-Chu sequences with a zero correlation zone,
generated from one or several root Zadoff-Chu sequences. In another
example embodiment, the preambles may also be generated using other
random sequences such as Gold sequences. The network may configure
the set of preamble sequences a wireless device may be allowed to
use. According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, there
may be a multitude of preambles (e.g. 64) available in cell(s).
From the physical layer perspective, the physical layer random
access procedure may include the transmission of random access
preamble(s) and random access response(s). Remaining message(s) may
be scheduled for transmission by a higher layer on the shared data
channel and may not be considered part of the physical layer random
access procedure. For example, a random access channel may occupy 6
resource blocks in a subframe or set of consecutive subframes
reserved for random access preamble transmissions.
According to some of the various embodiments, the following actions
may be followed for a physical random access procedure: 1) layer 1
procedure may be triggered upon request of a preamble transmission
by higher layers; 2) a preamble index, a target preamble received
power, a corresponding RA-RNTI (random access-radio network
temporary identifier) and/or a PRACH resource may be indicated by
higher layers as part of a request; 3) a preamble transmission
power P_PRACH may be determined; 4) a preamble sequence may be
selected from the preamble sequence set using the preamble index;
5) a single preamble may be transmitted using selected preamble
sequence(s) with transmission power P_PRACH on the indicated PRACH
resource; 6) detection of a PDCCH with the indicated RAR may be
attempted during a window controlled by higher layers; and/or the
like. If detected, the corresponding downlink shared channel
transport block may be passed to higher layers. The higher layers
may parse transport block(s) and/or indicate an uplink grant to the
physical layer(s).
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a random
access procedure may be initiated by a physical downlink control
channel (PDCCH) order and/or by the MAC sublayer in a wireless
device. If a wireless device receives a PDCCH transmission
consistent with a PDCCH order masked with its radio identifier, the
wireless device may initiate a random access procedure. Preamble
transmission(s) on physical random access channel(s) (PRACH) may be
supported on a first uplink carrier and reception of a PDCCH order
may be supported on a first downlink carrier.
Before a wireless device initiates transmission of a random access
preamble, it may access one or many of the following types of
information: a) available set(s) of PRACH resources for the
transmission of a random access preamble; b) group(s) of random
access preambles and set(s) of available random access preambles in
group(s); c) random access response window size(s); d)
power-ramping factor(s); e) maximum number(s) of preamble
transmission(s); 0 initial preamble power; g) preamble format based
offset(s); h) contention resolution timer(s); and/or the like.
These parameters may be updated from upper layers or may be
received from the base station before random access procedure(s)
may be initiated.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may select a random access preamble using available
information. The preamble may be signaled by a base station or the
preamble may be randomly selected by the wireless device. The
wireless device may determine the next available subframe
containing PRACH permitted by restrictions given by the base
station and the physical layer timing requirements for TDD or FDD.
Subframe timing and the timing of transmitting the random access
preamble may be determined based, at least in part, on
synchronization signals received from the base station and/or the
information received from the base station. The wireless device may
proceed to the transmission of the random access preamble when it
has determined the timing. The random access preamble may be
transmitted on a second plurality of subcarriers on the first
uplink carrier.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, once a
random access preamble is transmitted, a wireless device may
monitor the PDCCH of a first downlink carrier for random access
response(s), in a random access response window. There may be a
pre-known identifier in PDCCH that identifies a random access
response. The wireless device may stop monitoring for random access
response(s) after successful reception of a random access response
containing random access preamble identifiers that matches the
transmitted random access preamble and/or a random access response
address to a wireless device identifier. A base station random
access response may include a time alignment command. The wireless
device may process the received time alignment command and may
adjust its uplink transmission timing according the time alignment
value in the command. For example, in a random access response, a
time alignment command may be coded using 11 bits, where an amount
of the time alignment may be based on the value in the command. In
an example embodiment, when an uplink transmission is required, the
base station may provide the wireless device a grant for uplink
transmission.
If no random access response is received within the random access
response window, and/or if none of the received random access
responses contains a random access preamble identifier
corresponding to the transmitted random access preamble, the random
access response reception may be considered unsuccessful and the
wireless device may, based on the backoff parameter in the wireless
device, select a random backoff time and delay the subsequent
random access transmission by the backoff time, and may retransmit
another random access preamble.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may transmit packets on an uplink carrier. Uplink packet
transmission timing may be calculated in the wireless device using
the timing of synchronization signal(s) received in a downlink.
Upon reception of a timing alignment command by the wireless
device, the wireless device may adjust its uplink transmission
timing. The timing alignment command may indicate the change of the
uplink timing relative to the current uplink timing. The uplink
transmission timing for an uplink carrier may be determined using
time alignment commands and/or downlink reference signals.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a time
alignment command may indicate timing adjustment for transmission
of signals on uplink carriers. For example, a time alignment
command may use 6 bits. Adjustment of the uplink timing by a
positive or a negative amount indicates advancing or delaying the
uplink transmission timing by a given amount respectively.
For a timing alignment command received on subframe n, the
corresponding adjustment of the timing may be applied with some
delay, for example, it may be applied from the beginning of
subframe n+6. When the wireless device's uplink transmissions in
subframe n and subframe n+1 are overlapped due to the timing
adjustment, the wireless device may transmit complete subframe n
and may not transmit the overlapped part of subframe n+1.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, a wireless
device may include a configurable timer (timeAlignmentTimer) that
may be used to control how long the wireless device is considered
uplink time aligned. When a timing alignment command MAC control
element is received, the wireless device may apply the timing
alignment command and start or restart timeAlignmentTimer. The
wireless device may not perform any uplink transmission except the
random access preamble transmission when timeAlignmentTimer is not
running or when it exceeds its limit. The time alignment command
may substantially align frame and subframe reception timing of a
first uplink carrier and at least one additional uplink carrier.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, the time
alignment command value range employed during a random access
process may be substantially larger than the time alignment command
value range during active data transmission. In an example
embodiment, uplink transmission timing may be maintained on a per
time alignment group (carrier group) basis. Carrier(s) may be
grouped in carrier groups, and carrier groups may have their own
downlink timing reference, time alignment timer, and/or time
alignment commands. Group(s) may have their own random access
process. Time alignment commands may be directed to a time
alignment group. The carrier group including the primary cell may
be called a primary carrier group and the carrier group not
including the primary cell may be called a secondary carrier
group.
According to some of the various aspects of embodiments, control
message(s) or control packet(s) may be scheduled for transmission
in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and/or physical
uplink shared channel PUSCH. PDSCH and PUSCH may carry control and
data message(s)/packet(s). Control message(s) and/or packet(s) may
be processed before transmission. For example, the control
message(s) and/or packet(s) may be fragmented or multiplexed before
transmission. A control message in an upper layer may be processed
as a data packet in the MAC or physical layer. For example, system
information block(s) as well as data traffic may be scheduled for
transmission in PDSCH. Data packet(s) may be encrypted packets.
In this specification, "a" and "an" and similar phrases are to be
interpreted as "at least one" and "one or more." In this
specification, the term "may" is to be interpreted as "may, for
example," In other words, the term "may" is indicative that the
phrase following the term "may" is an example of one of a multitude
of suitable possibilities that may, or may not, be employed to one
or more of the various embodiments.
Many of the elements described in the disclosed embodiments may be
implemented as modules. A module is defined here as an isolatable
element that performs a defined function and has a defined
interface to other elements. The modules described in this
disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software in combination
with hardware, firmware, wetware (i.e hardware with a biological
element) or a combination thereof, all of which are behaviorally
equivalent. For example, modules may be implemented as a software
routine written in a computer language configured to be executed by
a hardware machine (such as C, C++, Fortran, Java, Basic, Matlab or
the like) or a modeling/simulation program such as Simulink,
Stateflow, GNU Octave, or Lab VIEWMathScript. Additionally, it may
be possible to implement modules using physical hardware that
incorporates discrete or programmable analog, digital and/or
quantum hardware. Examples of programmable hardware comprise:
computers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, application-specific
integrated circuits (ASICs); field programmable gate arrays
(FPGAs); and complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs). Computers,
microcontrollers and microprocessors are programmed using languages
such as assembly, C, C++ or the like. FPGAs, ASICs and CPLDs are
often programmed using hardware description languages (HDL) such as
VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL) or Verilog that
configure connections between internal hardware modules with lesser
functionality on a programmable device. Finally, it needs to be
emphasized that the above mentioned technologies are often used in
combination to achieve the result of a functional module.
The disclosure of this patent document incorporates material which
is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no
objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent
document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and
Trademark Office patent file or records, for the limited purposes
required by law, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights
whatsoever.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be
understood that they have been presented by way of example, and not
limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant
art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be made therein
without departing from the spirit and scope. In fact, after reading
the above description, it will be apparent to one skilled in the
relevant art(s) how to implement alternative embodiments. Thus, the
present embodiments should not be limited by any of the above
described exemplary embodiments. In particular, it should be noted
that, for example purposes, the above explanation has focused on
the example(s) using FDD communication systems. However, one
skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments of the invention
may also be implemented in TDD communication systems. The disclosed
methods and systems may be implemented in wireless or wireline
systems. The features of various embodiments presented in this
invention may be combined. One or many features (method or system)
of one embodiment may be implemented in other embodiments. Only a
limited number of example combinations are shown to indicate to one
skilled in the art the possibility of features that may be combined
in various embodiments to create enhanced transmission and
reception systems and methods.
In addition, it should be understood that any figures which
highlight the functionality and advantages, are presented for
example purposes only. The disclosed architecture is sufficiently
flexible and configurable, such that it may be utilized in ways
other than that shown. For example, the actions listed in any
flowchart may be re-ordered or only optionally used in some
embodiments.
Further, the purpose of the Abstract of the Disclosure is to enable
the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and
especially the scientists, engineers and practitioners in the art
who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to
determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence
of the technical disclosure of the application. The Abstract of the
Disclosure is not intended to be limiting as to the scope in any
way.
Finally, it is the applicant's intent that only claims that include
the express language "means for" or "step for" be interpreted under
35 U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6. Claims that do not expressly include
the phrase "means for" or "step for" are not to be interpreted
under 35 U.S.C. 112, paragraph 6.
* * * * *